Improved smelting-furnace for iron



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

` ROBERT WM. SI-VIER, OF UPPER HOLLOWAY, ENGLAND,

ASSIGNOR TO WILLIAM LILLEY.

spetta-ation forming/part of Letters Parent No. 24,525, dated June 21, 1859. A

To all whom, t may concern,.-

Be it known that I, ROBERU WILLIAM SIE- vIER, of Upper Holloway, London, in'. the

Kingdom of Great Britain, but temporarily sary for the reduction ofthe ore in the furnace by exhausting the air or gases as produced by the combustion of the carbon, the exhaust being effected by means-of a fan pumps, or otherwise, so that a sharp draft or current ofair of suicient density may enter into the lower -opening of the furnaceand producethe effect desired. High chimneys, I am aware, have been tried to produce the same eiect, but aban -doned as useless; also, afpeculiarmethod of constructing furnacescto be more suitable formanufacturing a wrought-iron or sheet-iron immediately from the ore, which furnace may be used for other metallic'ores.

Figure 1, Plate 1, represents the furnace, which I call the side.view, and Fig. 5 the end 7 view. It will be seen that this'furnace is of an oblong or sort of oval shape. (To prevent confusion, the letters are the same on every diagram which represents the same parts.) a represents the body of the furnace; b b, the boshes, which are constructed, as well 'as thefinterior sides of the furnace, with rebricks cemented well together with tire-clay; or a smallvfurnace may be lined with fire-clay entirely. Firestone may also be used. This is entirely a matter of discretion by the smelting-master. In building with fire-bricks or fire-stone inside the iron casing, .which I prefer being made of boiler-plate g g, care must be taken-to lay the'br'icks one on another, so as to break the joints,7 as it is called, in brick-work, and the tire-clay, which is used as a mortar or cement, must be nely'sifted, so as to lie close and fill up every spacebetween' the-bricks, that no air may get between l them, asthe air mustv be drawn through the -masses of -the material in the furnace.

o c is a channel all round the furnace, which must be filled with sandof a good quality; andd d d d are `1ire-bricks. The lower part, e e, must be of the best material, to resist the heat;

' and itis better to narrow` in that part of the bottom of the furnace marked e ex. This part ought to be constructed of the best material, to resist the action of the re. The whole of this furnace, except the opening of the bottom', must be air-tight,- and I therefore prefer it being surrounded by an iron casing hooped around at the lower part with iron' hoops h h h h, andthe whole supportedon pillars X if?, the 4furnace being bracketed' to them at j j. At the top of the furnace is an'upright iron tube composed of plate-iron 7c k, (I should p re- -fer that part which enters the furnace to be of re-bricks,) which is the receptacle for the` ore, &c., which is" put in at the top Z. This tube has a cover, m, which is raised up by the lever n, working on a swivel-joint at o, so that when it is risen up it can bemoved to the right .or to the left, to enable thc workmen to fill the tube with the necessary material.. This cover ts, as is seen, in a recess, p p, which is filled with water or sand, to keep the .joint as airtight aspossible. M is supposed to be a'truck containing ore. 8vo.

q q is the stage upon which the Workman stands.- This stage may be supported by pillars rr, or by any convenient means.

S is the exhausting-tube, ,which goes on to the exhauster, Fig. 2, DX, placed in any convenientsituation, it matters not how far in any reason from vthe furnace-say, one hundred yards-so that a' continuation of the tube is carried to it. This exhauster is represented by a fan, which I prefer for general. purposes, which is composed of a number-'of leaves,l tt, land it is fixed upon the axle o, which is seen on alarge scale, Plate 2. These leaves are set at an angle, so' that when the fan turns it screws the air out of the furnace and causes a rush of air into the slots or apertures all round the bottom of'the furnace. at u u, which causes the ore to be reduced and the metal to run from it. The gases produced from combustion are drawn away'in the direction of thearrows. -The exhauster. Fig.A 2 is fitted on the shaft v, which shaft is held in the bearing-u ax ux, and the shaft is turned by the pulley w, by a strap attached to the motive power. This fan should be placed near the ground, to give it a solid foundation, as it-has to be turned with great nace might go on during its repair'.-" They are easily arranged so that the tube from each -fau orexhauster may be connected'with the mainA exhaust-pipe, and a means of shutting the tube olf by a sliding door, s o as to shutoff` thelexhauster that requires repairing. v.

X X, Fig. 2, represents a' firm br'ck or stone foundation or pierhand y y iron bolts, which pass down it and firmly hold the plate to which the bearings ux ux are attached.

Z represents a' safety-tube 1n caseof slight explosion by ignition of the gases. This tube is bent downward, like a siphon,fand passes down into a cistern, ax,containing-water,\and,-V

Vshould an explosion take place, thewater .only

- surrounding thetube is'dis'placed,-as there is a artition cx in the cistern and the vcorn- P a 7 a munication between the two parts is by holes,

as seen at bx. There is also a communication from the Siphon-tube. z with the exhaustingtube vs by a tube, dx, by which means the air. and gasesare more regularly dawnloif at the top of the furnace.

tion of the melted metal or slag., I prefer having a slag-slot in three places-viz., one at each' endl and one at the middle of one of the sides-#seen in Fig. 8, hx vhx hx; I require these outlets to free the metal from slag and easily removed when wrought-iron is pro-v duced; -and in some cases the lumps o r balls, when carbon may have got mixed withthem,

may be easily placed in a sweatingA-furnacemr..

piling for a short time, to burn these pieces out beforeplacing them under the hammer.

Before the crucible is. removed a few iron rods ought to be placed underneath the bot. ltom of the furnace and propped up, so as to prevent the upperpart from comingdown while the balls are being removed.

than one foot to one foot six inches either way, to easily remove the loops or balls..4 There is another plan I 'prefer to -adopt for moving the crucible, as seen at Figff, in which the .crucibleis raised or lowered by a-hydraulic press. p v

ix represents the crucible; jx., the piston of hydraulic press; kx kx, the body, and mxx the feed-pipe to the pumps, and kxx the founda tion, the arrangement of the press lbeing ton well known, to need any description. If the crucible is very long, I should prefer two hydraulic presses, -both attached to .the'same force-pump. I thinl; this would elevate the 'and Figs. 6, 7, 8 plan views.

itat nx. p 'rials as they pass down the tube It K, and lay -them against the sides of thefurnace as I desire them, if the ore and materials are put into lthe upper'part in regular layers.

At the lower part of the. furnace, at gx, is the crucible, for the recep In this operation the crucible need not be movedmore 'cruciblekbetter'.` m-By employing thishydraul-ie press-any required size or width of the open;

ingsffornthe admission of air may be easilytIliade.

All these crucibles are in an iron casing. These movable crucibles will also allow Iof.. repairs being easily made'in Vthat part of the furnace which burns' away.

Fig. .5 represents the end view of the furnace, I It will be seen bythemlthat the furnace is nearly twice as wide one way as the other, and the crucible Fig. Sis 4 much more so. Fig. 6 representsthat part of the' fur-nace c ut through at the red line A B, l and Fig. 7 ascutlthrough at the' red lineCD,

andFig. 8 the'upper'part-of the crucible. fix fixfix xix fix 'ix ix are the base of the columns which vsup-port the furnace.

'ex is 'a piece of metal, but if made ofiireclay and-baked, it would be lmuch better. It is a conical-shaped-piece supported by stays mx mx. It has-an elongated piece attachedto This is to divide the oreand mate- The operation of the furnace is very simple. Ore, lime, and carbon are placed in the usual way in .the upper part, the fire is lighted 1u the usual manner, andwhen the furnace is suffrciently Yheated the fan is first putin slow motion and'gradually increased. I place awater.- gage on the exhaust-pipe, and commence the strength 'of the exhaust, say, at two' inches water,inereasing to four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten-inches, as you find it desirable. The ore is very speedily reduced or melted, and the gases. are withdrawn as generated, as larger or smaller surface of material may be acted uponat the will of the'operator, and exv posed to the influence of the oxygen of the atm'osphere by lowering the' crucible, which decarbonizes the metal and produces wroughtiron. This decarbonization can be increased or decreased,`aecording to the nature4 of the inetal. desired, by raising or' loweringthe crulciblewith the hydraulicv press, or'by plugging up portions of the slots u fu. of the movable crucible on the rail.' Bodies in a pulverized state,

or gases,'may be admitted or drawn in among the molten metal,'to assistin' any change of the metal, asmay be desired.

' V Sheet 2 represents the fan or exhauster. Fig. -1 represents a partial front View; v, the shaft;

g g,'two keys to hold the exhauster tight upon the shaft. is a cast 'or'wrought iron boss. All the letters are placed uponthe same parts in the different views. vs s. s s and u u u u are bolts and nuts, e which attach the two plates ordisks k and Z, to which are fixed the .leaves t ofthe fan.. 'Ihe flat metal piece r is riveted 4to the inner plate, Z, and istwisted alittle 'at rx. (Better seen inFig. 2.) Thistwist isnecessary to fix the' leaf t lby the rivets n n n, and the rivets g g g attach it to the disk Z..

Figs. 3 and 4.are the curvatures of the blades bf the fan, Fig. 3 being the undermost side and Fig. 4 the upper side. Fig. 5 represents the leaf fixed to the twisted piece 1 and rx with its curvature, and k represents an edge View of the disk k', to which the upper part of the leaf is riveted.

Having fully described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The use of the exhaust-pipe in connection with a fan, pump, or others means to exhaust the foul air'and gases, and cause a current of air to pass through thev bottom or apertures of the furnace, of sufficient density for the sme1ting and purifying iron and other ores7 in the manner and for the purposes above set forth.

Y R. W. sIEvIER.A

In presence of- S. Q. S'roKJss',v JOHN B. MILLER. 

